When MS went on that buying spree a few years ago, my first thought was, "Well, they are doing the Microsoft thing and using their money to try to buy up every studio to outdo Sony." Sure enough, that's exactly what they were doing. Unfortunately, they're failing to realize that you can't just buy quality games;…

The first item alone is a death sentence. Backed up with the assessment of other studios (Bungie, LMAO), it’s going to be quite hard to convince any judge or regulator that your goal isn’t monopoly.

Single studio that makes a single game vs merger of two very large publishers. There’s not really any real antitrust concern around Sony owning Bungie, any more than there was when Microsoft acquired Obsidian or Double Fine.

And... ActiBlizz wouldn’t, somehow?

Burying the lede a bit here, Zack. Here’s the juicy bit to me, about how Microsoft might be able to spend Sony out of business by acquiring a bunch of studios, but “that was an old strategy”, thought up way in the distant past of 2019:

One of 2023's best games seems to have landed with a rather heavy wet thud at Kotaku. The first paragraph of the Kotaku review by John Walker reads as follows:

Two years later, Season finally did arrive to tons of critical acclaim.

This is a wild take. In what world does multiple theaters getting multiple different cuts with different minor tweaks somehow equate to one incomplete copy somehow getting out into the wild.... with changes that are distinctly different as oppose to just different takes of the exact same scripted lines?

There is simply…

I think the real problem here is that company recently surrounded by a giant cloud of sexual assault allegations having a quest whose objective is making sure a sexual assault continues to happen is just a tad gauche.

I’m reminded of the Monty Python album Matching Tie and Handkerchief where side 2 was double grooved. You would get completely different material depending on which groove you dropped the needle in.

That is a terrible name.

Starting off strong I see.

It’s really weird that FF XVI would have such a homogeneous cast when their previous entries were so loaded with cultural diversity and representation.

Hell yeah, that movie is an all-timer. I really liked Pop Star, but for fake music documentaries/biopics (yeah they’re different genres, but I’m lumping them together) Walk Hard reigns supreme.

Walk Hard doesn’t make this list?  Wrong list maker died.

They didn’t have much of a choice, as Reddit threatened to remove all the mods and reopen the subreddit anyway. This will hurt Reddit in small ways, for example advertisers who paid the higher rate to advertise on video gaming subreddits are going to be pissed. It also decreases the potential ad impressions for video…

i think it looks pretty good

Microsoft bought just shy of $5B of its own stock this year so far.  Last year it bought $27B.  So yeah....this has nothing to do with competative conditions, but shareholders and wallstreet demanding that they continue to get the massive gains they need even in the face of inflation.  

...they’re also increasing prices on physical consoles.

That’s not really the point, a 360 controller isn’t going to work on a Series X (without an adapter anyway). The idea is to use a 360 style controller on a modern console.